Mike Argento: America has simply accepted tragic gun violence

In Connecticut, a madman storms into an elementary school and kills 27 people, including 18 children. In Kansas City, a pro football player shoots and kills his girlfriend and then drives to the stadium, where he kills himself in front of his coach. A deranged man dons body armor and a hockey mask and goes to a mall in Oregon armed with an AR-15, killing two before turning the weapon on himself. Twelve were killed in a movie theater in Aurora, Co., when a man dressed in tactical clothing opened fire during a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises."

Locally, an argument escalates into shooting and a woman is shot in the head. Another dispute outside an after-hours club evolves quickly into a firefight between the participants and police. A man claiming self-defense allegedly guns down his neighbor in an apparent dispute over his dogs.

Hardly a day passes without mayhem and madness and gun violence in this country, and in this community.

But, of course, that doesn't mean anyone should even suggest, or hint at, or even think about, starting any debate or discussion or casual conversation about gun control, or our culture of violence, or our culture that seems to tolerate gun violence to the point that it seems normal, a fact of life, or death.

It's pointless.

After every tragic act of violence, there is some clucking about guns and the culture of violence from the usual suspects, followed by the backlash from gun nuts.

Advertisement

And then the debate, or what passes for a debate, quickly disappears, forgotten as we turn our attention to more pressing matters, such as pregnant British women and whether Lindsay Lohan is in jail again.

The argument is over. We've accepted the fact that our country is awash with guns and that we are powerless to keep them away from lunatics - and that a mass shooting or murder-suicide or shootout at an after-hours club is just something we have to live with.

There is no debate.

None of our politicians are saying anything about guns - unless it's our soon-to-be Congressman Scott Perry, who said people need guns "to protect ourselves from an overbearing government that does not do the will of the people." Nobody is pushing any legislation to limit gun ownership or make it more difficult to buy guns. Nobody is, to paraphrase NRA dogma, coming to take your guns away.

It's a testament to our tolerance of mass killing that there is not even any attempt to reinstate the ban on semi-automatic assault weapons. When the 1994 ban expired in 2004, there were a few proposals to renew it, but none went anywhere. Nobody seemed to care. (Of course, whether the ban was successful in reducing gun violence depends on who's answering the question.)

And even now, as madmen mow down elementary school children, theater patrons and mall walkers, nobody seems to care.

We're told that this isn't the time to talk about it. Tell that to the parents now mourning and preparing to bury their children in the cold Connecticut ground.

Gun sales are at all-time highs and one of the reasons is the fear-mongering by the National Rifle Association that President Obama is coming to take away everyone's guns.

It's kind of amusing. During the campaign, I can't think of one instance where Obama mentioned gun control or any measures that would reduce the availability of firearms. He hasn't pushed for reinstating the assault weapons ban. He hasn't proposed any gun legislation.

If the gun rights people want to be upset with someone, they should turn their attention to our governor, Tom Corbett. There are a lot of differences between Obama and Corbett. Among them, only one of them has signed a piece of gun-control legislation - Corbett.

In October, Corbett signed a law that restored minimum five-year prison sentences for anyone convicted of making repeated straw purchases of firearms. Of course, straw purchases were already illegal in Pennsylvania and the law merely set a mandatory sentence for repeat offenders. But still, it was a gun law.

It seems instructive that, in the wake of the murder-suicide involving Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, the focus wasn't on guns, but rather what NBC sportscaster Bob Costas said about them during halftime of the Sunday night game after Belcher killed the mother of his infant child and then blew his own brains out in front of head coach Romeo Crennel.

Costas, quoting Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock, said, "Our current gun culture simply ensures that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy, and that more convenience-store confrontations over loud music coming from a car will leave more teenage boys bloodied and dead."

He concluded, again citing Whitlock, "Handguns do not enhance our safety. They exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments, and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it."

The backlash was immediate. Costas wasn't saying the Second Amendment should be repealed. He wasn't saying much of anything about limiting guns. He was merely stating what our culture had become. And the reaction was swift and harsh. Costas was vilified, as was Whitlock, by gun rights advocates who argued, in some cases, that halftime of a violent sport is no time to be talking about violence.

Costas, and Whitlock, were hoping to spark some debate on the issue. Instead, all they sparked was debate about Costas and Whitlock. By merely bringing up the subject, they were the bad guys. And that debate quickly disappeared. Costas backed away from his comments.

And everything returned to normal.

The day after Belcher killed his girlfriend and himself, the Chiefs, among the worst teams in the NFL, played, and won with what the sports commentariat described as an inspired performance, led by Crennel, who was on his way to being fired before that game.

About the only lasting effect from the Kansas City violence is that the Chiefs will not be able to fire Crennel at the end of the season.

Call it collateral damage.

Mike Argento's column appears Mondays and Fridays in Living and Sundays in Viewpoints. Reach him at mike@ydr.com or 771-2046. Read more Argento columns at www.ydr.com/mike. Or follow him on Twitter at FnMikeArgento.